The images in the following program are highly sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals, praying that you will help to stop it.

Today on the Stop Animal Cruelty program we bring you the second and final part our series on the forgotten birds of the broiler and egg-laying industries – the parents of the birds used for egg and meat production.

We continue our interview with Patty Mark, the founder and president of the Melbourne, Australia-based non-profit group Animal Liberation Victoria about the callous treatment of these birds by the chicken industry and the nightmarish conditions inside of what are known as “parent bird sheds.” Roosters and hens are jammed together in these appallingly filthy sheds for the purpose of mating. Their offspring are then savagely exploited in factory farms for their meat or eggs.

For over 30 years Patty Mark and Animal Liberation Victoria have been standing up for animal rights and seeking to free animals wherever humans are inflicting cruelty upon them. ALV focuses on spreading the word about veganism because after many years of lobbying governments, signing petitions, and holding demonstrations, the group believes it’s by far the quickest and most effective way to help put an end to the suffering and enslavement of our wonderful animal co-inhabitants.

In the early 1990s Patty Mark pioneered the concept of the “open rescue” and since then Animal Liberation Victoria has conducted numerous such rescues at factory farms, feedlots, live export facilities and abattoirs.

During an open rescue, ALV members go to facilities that imprison animals to give them aid and veterinary treatment and to rescue any sick or dying animals. Their living conditions are also recorded on video. The following is footage from an open rescue conducted at a parent bird shed in Victoria, Australia.

This is a broiler breeder hen. She’s been in this shed for about a year. She’s been repeatedly mated. She’s very, very heavy. They’re a mess aren’t they? (Yes) They’re really a mess. (They’re distressed.) Look at her head. That’s from where the rooster holds her head down.

There’s not a lot of information out there, like when you do a search on the Internet, about the atrocities that occur in parent sheds. Why do you think that is?

It’s very frustrating because since I first discovered it, and I’ve been in a lot of sheds, to me it was the most horrific shed I’ve been in and I feel like, this really needs to get out to the public, but for some reason even the animal movement isn’t picking up on this yet. I think perhaps it’s the foundation so people, their minds don’t go there.

And let’s face it, the overwhelming numbers are their children, are the actual little chicks who are killed when they’re only six to seven weeks of age. For instance in the numbers, they go from the great-grandparents who are only 20,000 down to the parent birds where there’s six million in Australia, and those six million parent birds, produce almost 500 million chicks for flesh production.

So possibly it’s because the greatest numbers are the babies who are killed even though they’re huge, but, it’s important I think that this hidden industry that we do get it out there and show that there’s a lot more suffering that doesn’t meet the eye.

And do you think that the public is aware of where these birds that they consume come from?

Oh not at all. I don’t think the public has much knowledge or concept whatsoever of where these birds come from. I personally believe most of the public think they eat laying hens, battery hens. They think they eat the hens that are locked up in the cages or in the big farms. So the fact that they just see chicken nuggets or fast food, it just doesn’t click to them how all this meat is there in front of them. It just doesn’t register.

Have you had the opportunity, to show the open rescue videos to the public?

Yes, well we have them on our websites of course but I’ve taken some of the footage to the United States at a conference over there and showed it there, and we show it when we have speaking engagements here in Melbourne. But more or less these are just small groups,groups from 50 to 100 people. We need to get it out to the population who are out there eating all these birds.

So we had come into an egg-laying shed. And this is where I’m just going to show you three or four minutes of footage. And this is for egg production. It was in the middle of the Black Saturday bush fires. We were determined to see what had happened to those chickens. So our rescue team went up there. And we did a lot of rescue work up there mostly with starving cows and that, but we went to the farm and everything around it was burned flat.

It was, as we all know just horrendous, but the shed still stood there and they were still screaming. And they’re still there now, I’m sorry… So I guess it became my mission at that point … to try to get people to see there’re parent birds. And there’re actually grandparent birds.

This is why I think it’s so important for the animal movement that we really broaden our compassion, open our minds that it’s not just factory farming we’re fighting, we’re fighting animal slavery that for some reason humans think animals are our slaves. They’re not equal to us. I mean, we’re humans! And we are great. There’re great things humans have done there’s no doubt about it, but we’re no different to other animals in the fact that we feel pain and pleasure and have a right to live our own life.

It’s not about making the cages bigger or the conditions better or the abattoirs more “humane.” it’s about making a really beautiful leap of faith that we can live healthy, strong lives and let others live as well and we’re going to benefit, they’re going to benefit and the planet is going to benefit.

The parents get in these horrible ... you’ll see the footage in a minute. They’re constantly screaming. The hens are so exhausted. Their backs are red raw. They have no tail feathers left because the roosters are there; they’re being mated continually, they can’t escape. The roosters are so exhausted.

Parent birds lay about 150 eggs a year and they can be kept and then incubated and that’s how these millions and billions of little baby chicks get born. And if they’re for the egg-laying industry their offspring become free-range hens, barn-laid hens and battery-cage hens.

What have been the general reactions of the public who have seen these videos?

The reaction is always just total shock. They can’t believe what they’re seeing. And they’re repulsed and they’re saddened; there’re tears. They can’t smell it because it’s video but they can hear the screaming, they can see the very poor condition of the birds and, anybody looking at even 10 seconds of this footage can see that this is really, really wrong. So, yes the few that have seen it can see it!

But the problem is most people don’t see it and the industry doesn’t want you to see it. They have their glossy ads on TV that show a few seconds in a shed that looks like there’s Sun streaming in. It’s a big myth. They just try to say everything is fine when nothing could be further from the truth.

What can be done to put an end to these horrifying parent bird sheds?

The best thing to put an end to the parent bird sheds and to virtually all the suffering of these animals in agriculture is for humans to adopt a plant-based diet and to go vegan.

At the recent launch of the 30 Day Vegan Easy Challenge organized by Animal Liberation Victoria, participants were shown some of ALV’s open rescue footage from parent bird sheds as well as other animal-abusing facilities and then had the opportunity to listen to a candid and uplifting talk by Patty Mark.

So when you’re not around other vegans it can be really hard. So I would slip back. And this happened two or three times, until my son, he’s six foot three (inches) and he now holds the Australian Champion (title) for bench press weightlifting. He’s got gold medals for his weightlifting. When he turned 15, he did heaps of reading and he said: “Mom, I’m going vegan.” And I said, “Oh, okay! Good! Another vegan in the house, I’ll go with you.” And that was 20 years ago this year.

So having somebody around you, to support you it means a lot I think. But even if you don’t, we’re all here to support you through the whole journey and more and more people are going vegan but it does help if you have people around you that understand and feel strongly about it.

Ms. Mark and the Animal Liberation Victoria open rescue team, we are thankful that you are publicizing the untold horrors of parent bird sheds and spreading the message that these unconscionable facilities need to close immediately. We are also truly grateful as your pro-animal work in numerous areas is opening up people’s hearts in Australia and elsewhere, with more and more individuals now choosing to treat all living beings with kindness and respect.

May all people soon adopt the compassionate, life-saving organic vegan diet which is the quickest and simplest way to end the brutal treatment and enslavement of animals forever.

Thank you Supreme Master for this excellent series and for inviting me to be part of it.
Be Veg,
Go Green
2 Save the Planet!

To learn more about the activities of Animal Liberation Victoria, please visit the following websites:
www.ALV.org.au
www.OpenRescue.org
www.VeganEasy.org

Thank you for joining us today on Stop Animal Cruelty. Enlightening Entertainment is coming up next after Noteworthy News. May all of humanity soon remember their noble, true nature and live in everlasting peace and harmony with all beings on Earth.